Murray Hill Properties is in contract to buy Times Square’s 1450 Broadway for about $95 million from Japan’s Orix Realty Partners.

The deal is expected to close at the beginning of April. Norman Sturner, a partner with Murray Hill Properties, said, “I don’t have one qualm about making an investment in good bricks on an economic basis today.”

Murray Hill, in partnership with ING Realty Partners, is expecting to take over the current owner’s mortgage. The deal was first reported by IPGDirect.com.

According to CoStar Group, 1450 Broadway has 351,490 square feet, pegging the deal at about $270 a foot. Close to 50,000 square feet of office space is available, plus a bit more in retail.

Sturner observed that most leases in the building, which overlooks Times Square, are at $30 a foot, while that market is at $50 to $60 a foot. Most owners can pump up the bottom line as older tenant leases roll over and are rewritten at higher numbers.

“I get a couple of hundred thousand people every day walking by, and I am looking at 8,000 feet of vacant retail,” he added.

The building sits at the southeast corner of 41st Street and reflects the varied tenancies of the Fashion Center and Times Square.

Orix bought the property in 1988 for just over $77.8 million and did capital improvements in 1993. Sturner said he, too, will “spruce up” the 1931 property.

Murray Hill was the next bidder in line after Bruce Brickman of Brickman Associates. He passed on this purchase around the time the Barney’s retail condo came on the market. Brickman already owns the office condominium in that building at 660 Madison Ave.